


Beginning in the Middle

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [44]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 12:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21338605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Hashirama finds himself thrown back in time and he takes his second chance without asking questions.
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Uchiha Madara
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 14
Kudos: 214





	Beginning in the Middle

Hashirama had never actually given much thought to how he would die. Unlike what most people would probably assume, that he was so focused on peace that he simply couldn’t conceive of violence enough to foresee it causing his own end, the truth was much more shameful. It was hubris, plain and simple. Since he was a child Hashirama had gotten used to being lauded as a prodigy superior to even the adults around him. As the Hokage of the first military village he had been named the God of Shinobi. When he met his end the biggest surprise of all for Hashirama was that there existed anyone strong enough to face him and come away the victor.

Of course, age was something he’d never paid much attention to and had failed to take in to account as his own increased year by year. His wife begged him not to answer the call to battle that day and as he lay dying in a pool of his own blood Hashirama thought not that he should have listened to her, though he supposed most men would save their dying thoughts for the one they had promised to love and cherish.

No, Hashirama's last moments were spent wishing for a face that he hadn’t seen since the day they separated at the village gates, since Madara turned his back on the dream they once shared when it was finally clear that it could not give him what he wanted. There was no peace in Konoha for him. Not without Izuna.

Darkness closed in much faster than expected and Hashirama accepted his own death with great reluctance, some part of him stubbornly convinced that he still could have fixed the one relationship he most regretted losing. Then suddenly he was opening his eyes again but not to darkness, not to the forest filled with blood and shadows and enemy faces leering down at him in victory. This was not the moment of his death.

This was a moment long past. Hashirama barely managed to duck out of the way as Madara's gunbai came swinging towards his neck, hardly able to process what was happening. Before him the Uchiha clan stood in battle lines bristling with weapons and gritted teeth. Behind him the Senju forces were a brilliant spot against his senses the likes of which he hadn’t felt since the peace treaties were signed. And to one side, from the corner of his eye where he stood staring in awe at the one man he had so dearly missed, he could see another moment in history he sorely regretted.

He may have never blamed Tobirama for taking the kill strike when he saw an opportunity but that did not mean he didn’t wish it never happened.

As though in a dream, not convinced that this _wasn’t_ a dream, Hashirama turned and rerouted as much chakra as he could in to one of his legs to throw himself across the battlefield. He was on time by a single instant. Tobirama’s reflexes were exactly as sharp as he remembered them being at this age and his brother had just enough time to spot the extra body in front of the one he’d meant to stab, flashing away with a second hiraishin just before running a sword through his own sibling. Izuna, on the other hand, was not so careful of the newcomer. Hashirama grunted at the sensation of steel tearing through the weak spot between two plates of armor.

Madara's cry of shock was like sweet music to his ears. It was hard to split his attention between his brother’s worry and the same emotion hidden somewhere in the complicated expression on Madara's face so he settled on holding a hand out and entirely ignoring the gasps from both of their little siblings.

“Please,” he begged. “The future is in our hands. Let me show you, my friend. Let me show you everything we could do, everything we could be, as long as we’re together.”

He watched the color rising on Madara's cheeks, the thoughts churning behind those beautiful eyes, and thought to himself that if this was a dream he never wanted to wake up. If this was the light at the end of the tunnel he wanted it to last forever. This was a new path to have everything he had ever wanted and Hashirama desperately hoped he got his chance to see it through to the end.


End file.
